1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to disk drives, and in particular to a disk drive including an actuator including an actuator body with parallel support extensions and coil support tab for supporting a coil and method of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The typical hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) attached to a disk drive base of the HDA. The head disk assembly includes at least one magnetic disk, a spindle motor for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly (HSA). The spindle motor includes a spindle motor hub that is rotatably attached to the disk drive base and supports a lowermost one of the disks. The head stack assembly has an actuator assembly having at least one air bearing slider, typically several, for reading and writing data from and to the disk. Each slider includes a transducer head for reading and writing data. The printed circuit board assembly includes a servo control system in the form of a disk controller for generating servo control signals. The head stack assembly is controllably positioned in response to generated servo control signals from the disk controller. In so doing, the attached sliders are controllably moved relative to tracks disposed upon the disk for reading and writing operations.
The head stack assembly includes an actuator assembly, at least one head gimbal assembly, and a flex circuit assembly. A conventional “rotary” or “swing-type” actuator assembly typically includes an actuator having an actuator body. The actuator body is configured to rotate on a pivot assembly between limited positions about an axis of rotation. One or more actuator arms extend from one opposite side of the actuator body. A head gimbal assembly is distally attached to each of the actuator arms. A head gimbal assembly includes an air bearing slider that is attached to a suspension with a gimbal. The suspension resiliently supports the air bearing slider above the tracks of the disk during operation of the disk drive facilitating the slider to “fly” above the disk.
A coil is supported by a coil support that extends from an opposite side of the actuator body. The coil is configured to interact with one or more permanent magnets to form a voice coil motor. The coil is disposed in electrical communication with the disk controller through a flex circuit assembly. Controlled movement of the head stack assembly is achieved by selectively energizing the coil with the generated servo control signals.
The actuator arms are usually formed of aluminum which may be machined from a single piece of material. The actuator body is typically takes the form of plastic overmold disposed about the actuator arms. The plastic overmold may additionally be used to form the coil support. As can be appreciated, a reduction in the complexity of manufacturability and assembly with respect to the actuator would represent an improved actuator configuration in comparison to the prior art.